Miners' Struggle in West Virginia
Glasgow, Harold W.
Miners' Struggle in West Virginia Thousands on Hunger Rations as They Face Police Brutality in Desperate Strike By Harold W. Glasgow WITH 7,500 families destitute in Fairmont, W. Va.,...
...A committee, consisting of Hobart Linger, chairman...
...The union leader Indicated that Communist adventurism within the industry Is being fostered by manufacturers who do not live up to the agreements...
...Shore, in his address, stressed the desperate unemployment In the trade and said he was determined "to get a job for every man...
...He warned that all employers, whether members of the two associations or independents, would < feel the power of the union unless conditions are promptly enforced...
...only was there a ready response to the strike call, but assurances have been received from several thousand unorganised workers that they will stick It out with the union painters...
...Local Union, 442 members, Hennlngton Hall, 214-216 East 2nd street...
...Local Union 490, 1011 members, Labor Temple, 243 East 84th street...
...Fairmont Local of the Socialist Party Is in the field doing all it can in the way...
...Thirty-two carloads of flour have been requisitioned to prevent hunger among the unfortunate families, and the Red Cross appealed to the Marion County Court for assistance in this emergency as the flour alone will not be sufficient to keep the starving thousands alive, officials of the Local Chapter Red Cross told the County Commissioners...
...Local Union, 874 members, Rand Schoo), 7 Bast lpth street...
...This something tumbled into the mass of workers, a sharp sound followed by dense smoke and- sfifing fumes gave warning that the officers were not going to allow any picketing at all, for this was tear gas...
...Local Union 484, 905 members, Hunts Point Palace, 163rd street and Southern boulevard, Bronx...
...An attempt to Invade the headquarters of the association failed lgnomlniously...
...Commerford has been arrested, and held on $2,500 ball in Flushing Magistrates' Court, charged with shooting at two process-servers ¦who were about to serve him with papers instructing him to appear at a hearing to account for the funds of Local 125 that had been entrusted to his care...
...Captain Brown of the West Virginia State Police and twelve other troopers were lying In wait at the traction Station St the end of the bridge crossing the...
...Local Union, 261 members, Harlem Terrace, 210 E. 104th street...
...Their accomplishments have consisted in speeding up the workers to the point of inhuman endurance...
...The conditions to which District Council No...
...While Fairmont was, by, Mayor's proclamation, to have a safe and sane Fourth of July, and no fireworks were to be sold or fired in the city, the miners at Monongah, ten miles or less distant from the city, were having a different sort of celebration...
...There Is to be no discrimination In the distribution, commissioners were told...
...Local Union, 892 members, Meeting Rooms, 216 East 69th atreet...
...The meeting hall was packed to the limit and the applause accorded the speakers was spontaneous and prolonged...
...Near Morgahtown, the picketers were fired into, and one man killed and a couple of others were wounded, by mine guards...
...West Fork river...
...Paul Abelson, Impartial chairman of the fur Industry, presided...
...The line seemed endless, and soon a solid column.stretched down that steep road and swung into the stretch where the officers lay In wait A cry of warning, as suddenly from the ranks of the police something was hurled...
...Finally, the marchers came, shirt-sleeved men and plainly dressed women and children...
...ShOre pointed out that association members themselves were not above taking advantage of their workers and warned that the agreement would be enforced Impartially...
...Shore as a constructive trades unionist with vision and deteimlnation to work for the welfare of the industry and for the fur workers...
...We are determined to see that they get them...
...Not the least of the complaints made by the union Is the fact that the association of the bosses has encouraged the organization to serve as protection for unscrupulous employers who were guilty of, underpaying their employes...
...Aas'n, parties to' the labor agreements...
...The dead man left a wife and several children...
...Dr...
...Among those attending last Bight's conference were Peter Lucel, president of the International Fur Workers' Union, and Henry Rosen, president of the New York Fur Trimming Mfrs...
...of relief for the miners on strike...
...Tula gave those tunlty of having the jobs finished...
...They were routed by a handful of police and contented themselves with booing...
...0 calls attention Is not solely due to the depression, but in a great measure the result of the grasping and unscrupulous tactics of many of the employing painters, the .workers say...
...There was no provocation for-this attack either...
...Miners' Struggle in West Virginia Thousands on Hunger Rations as They Face Police Brutality in Desperate Strike By Harold W. Glasgow WITH 7,500 families destitute in Fairmont, W. Va., and the immediate vicinity according to a recent survey by the Red Cross, and mine disorders growing Increasingly difficult to handle, conditions are rapidly growing serious in the Fairmont, W. Va., coal fields...
...The bosses have been trying to Introduce a so-called "graded scale" and they have not been satisfied with the cut of 15 per crat in wages, which the members of the Painters' Union accepted recently, a cut which brought the wages down to $11*0 per day, In accordance with the recent general adjustment In the building industry...
...9 of the Painters' Unions...
...In addition to the nominations the members adopted a new set of rules and by-laws, and paid dues...
...Men working only three days a week at best and being as much asja hundred dollars in debt to the company, said company refusing "Scrip" (Company money advanced to the extent of miner's credit after deductions for powder, etc., are made...
...The bosses have repeatedly refused to permit the union representatives to examine the payroll books, nor would the employers agree to retaining the specification clause which covers the quality of the work to be done, To top it all, the employing painters are accused of striving to institute their vicious system used on new commercial work, to the old jobs which include apartment houses, churches and other buildings on which some of the finest decorative work has been done...
...A small group of Communists, recruited from various Industries, attempted to break up the conference before if started...
...The meeting Friday, called to meet at 8:30 at the Manhattan Casino, 155th street and Eighth avenue, virtually ends the threeyear dictatorship of Patrick J. Commerford, who had been placed In charge of the affairs of the union in March, 1929...
...Furriers'Union *Asks Return Of Standards Shore Presents Case for Workers—Communist§ Fail in Attempt to Break Up Conference At ti conference of all the organized factors of the New York fur industry, Samuel Shore, manager of the Furriers' Joint Council, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, demanded t'hat employers Immediately cease violations of collective agreements in force within the industry...
...Watching the high road that slopes steeply down the hillside and doubles back after crossing the car track, where It then comes out at the end of the bridge below the street car station the police waited...
...Shore said that a provision In the contracts, calling for the presentation of working cards ~ from "the-Jotnt Co unci], ~ mustbe strictly enforced "Members of our union, under the agreements," he said, "are entitled to all available jobs in the Industry...
...Only $1,597.83 was paid out for relief...
...While the employing painters frequently refer to themselves as 'masters of the industry,' they have contributed nothing to earn that title in the past twelve years," said an official Of District Council No...
...One woman who has nine children, was arrested also, then later released...
...New relief stations were set up at Farmlngton, Worthington, Everson, Carolina and Idamay...
...10,000Painters Strike Against Wage Slashes CHARGING that the Master Painters' Association brought about conditions that left no other recourse than to strike, 10,000 union painters responded to a strike call Thursday...
...Shore charged that increased unemployment, drastic reductions below the minimum wage scales, illegal overtime and Saturday work resulted from Ignoring conctracts...
...Between starving to death, and working and starving to death, they chose the former...
...At a hearing Judge Panken demanded that the property of the union be turned over to him as receiver pending reorganization of the local, but no action was taken...
...He said that Illegal overtime and Saturday work prevented the hire of additional men, while there la no provision In the contracts for equitable distribution of work, no matter how much or how little there was...
...When a case of this kind was proven before the Trade Board, the body that serves as an arbitration board for the workers and the bosses, the latter always managed to ob, struct and delay...
...Hawkins, Edward Shepard, and Harold Glasgow has been active In this work, and some supplies were taken to the miners a few days ago, and a meeting was held at Monongah Miner's Hall, which was addressed by H. L. Franklin, Socialist candidate for congress from the first district, and J. H. Snider, Socialist candidate for Governor...
...The Supreme Court came into the picture when John Irwin, spokesman for 603 members of the local, sued to restrain- Commerford from exercising dictatorial powers...
...Michael J. Daly, financial secretary of the union under part of the Commerford regime, admitted that there 'had been $13,000 of the union's funds he was unable to account for now...
...Under the direction of three Commissioners Of Election appointed by Supreme Court Justice Ernest E. L. Hammer, Judge Carroll Hayes, Vincent L. Lelbell and Judge Jacob Panken, nominations were held Friday (July 15th) for new officers as the first step toward the ending of an intolerable situation...
...John Irwin was designated by the Supreme Court to receive dues pending the complete reorganization of the affairs of the union...
...It was charged by many members that Commerford's rule was despotic and dictatorial, that he rendered no proper accounting for union funds, that he placed his friends in office as business agents, and that the death benefit funds and the unemployment relief funds—the latter amounting to $11,766.88 raised by a ten per cent' assessment on wages—were commingled with the general funds of the union...
...Shore was recently pressed Into service as head of the furriers' union when it was threatened with liquidation...
...After a few years, many of the men in the early thirties were broken physically...
...Abelson lauded Mr...
...Two of the bombs failed to explode and alert marchers quickly hurled them at the police, but their aim was bad and the projectiles fell beyond the officers...
...At the conclusion of his address, a resolution, introduced by Herman Schetdllnger, president of the Associated Fur Coat and Trimming Mfrs., Inc., promising that the manufacturers would observe the spirit and the letter of the contracts, was adopted...
...It was in that year that three locals of operating engineers were merged Into Local 125, and Commerford was placed in charge as "supervisor" by International President Huddell...
...Shore to the conferees...
...Dan Snider, Chas...
...At Monongah, it is said by reliable wttnesses that two troopers ordered a foreign woman into line, and as she didn't speak English and didn't therefore get the full meaning of the command, She was jerked into the road and then was commenced a Tug of War with the troopers apparently trying to tear the woman in two...
...In Justice Hammer's decision were Included reflections on the Importance of the labor movement In American life, and In granting every request of the petitioners he asked Panken and his two associates to act as receivers of the property and the affairs of the union until new officers are sleeted...
...A certified public accountant testified that there had been no books of the union in several years, and that he had been told they were destroyed...
...They now want to pay a wage of $10 and as low as $8 per day...
...Engineers Vote To Reorganize Local Union Panken Aids Members in Recapture of Their Organization — Commerford Is Held on Shooting Charge Following three years of chaos, Including charges and countercharges of despotism and financial mismanagement, and a suit In the New York Supreme Court, the turbulent affairs of Local 125 of the International Union of Operating Engineers appear at last to be clearing up...
...Hearing will be had on the shooting charge July 26th...
...The appointment was confirmed by President John Possell...
...whom the association leaders charged with creating substandard competitive conditions...
...The strikers slowly but surely had to retreat in the face of the gas' attack, and the brave police emerged victorious in another episode In West Virginia's already black industrial history...
...The Communists, he said, thrive on the desperation of exploited workers...
...Every struck Job will be efficiently picketed and all members must register twice dally, six days a week, in the following halls: Local Union, 51 members, Headquarters, 366 Eighth avenue...
...Local Union, 472 members, Columbian Hall, 730 Van Duzer street, Sta, pleton, S. I.;Local Unions 803-846, 499 members, Labor Temple, 243 East 84th street...
...Larger forces are necessary to distribute the flour because, Red Cross leaders say, there have been cases at relief stations where some persons even take the flour by force...
...The strike at the mines was not called by any union, but was one called by HUNGER...
...The frantic efforts to keep up with the killing pace left Its marks on the workers...
...Abelson and William Collins, representative of the American Federation of Labor, presented Mr...
...A few of the miners were arrested, though they didn't seem to mind, for one was heard to remark that he would get something to eat anyway...
...State police are at their usual duties, breaking up demonstrations and attempting to demoralize the strikers' picket lines...
...He refused to allow the manufacturers "to pass the buck" to Independent <_employers...
...These stations were necessary due to the sudden Increase in number of the destitute families as a result of the strike at mlnemof the Consolidation Coal Company...
...The union leader Insisted that active and loyal union members must cease to be "blacklisted" for their activity...
...These miners in some cases would have a dollar's credit left at the end of their three-days', work and with the company refusing to advance credit beyond that dollar, these men and their large families could not stand conditions longer...
...Exceptionally thorough plans have been made by the workers to conduct a winning fight Not...
Vol. 14 • July 1932 • No. 3
